Yiddish Research: Library Catalogs for Yiddish Research

Using Library Catalogs

Library catalogs contain bibliographic information (author, title, subject, publication information, physical description) about items in a library collection.

Use a library catalog to search by access points such as:

• Author
• Title
• Subject (Libraries in the United States use Library of Congress subject headings and libraries elsewhere use other standardized subject headings; these are standardized terms used to organize subjects and unify them under one heading, for example, Yiddish drama)
• Keyword (search for a word that appears anywhere in a bibliographic record)

Searching in Yiddish

• Search the library catalog in Yiddish for an author or title. If you don't have a Hebrew-alphabet keyboard on your device, use an online one.
• Omit nekudes (vowels or diacritical marks: אָ, אַ, ײַ ,פּ , פֿ), as most library catalogs don't recognize them.
• Omit articles (די, דער, דאס) at the beginning of a title.

Searching in Transliteration/Romanization

• Most libraries in the United States use Library of Congress romanization (transliteration) for Yiddish, which is slightly different from YIVO transliteration.
• Omit articles (di, der, dos) at the beginning of a title.

Spelling Variations

• You may need to vary your spelling in Yiddish or in transliteration, as most materials use nonstandard spelling.
• Please see this guide's section "For Students"> "Yiddish Spelling and Orthography" for more information.
• Ask a librarian for help if you're not finding what you need. Contact us at dorotjewish@nypl.org

Limit/Modify Search

Some catalogs also allow you to modify or limit your search by:

• Year
• Language

This can be helpful if you are getting too many results, and/or if you're looking for a very specific item.

Remember:

Library catalogs generally don't search the text inside of books, or even necessarily the table of contents. For that, you may need to:

• Search a digitized version, if it is available and searchable (see the Online Books section of this guide).
• Physically search through the item
• Ask for help. Contact us at dorotjewish@nypl.org